IBM as a nifty little website about sustainability and their efforts to become more green. Definitly recommended, go here to see.

Julius Melnitzer explains why new green laws, more than ever before, are narrowing the gap between business and environmental law.

And indeed over the last couple of years, law firms have worked hard to show their expertise in this field. I have spoken to more than a few lawyers now that tell me that climate change is becoming a mainstream practice area, albeit one that draws upon a number of specialties. Lawyers are now giving advice on the ability to generate and trade carbon credits, ownership of those credits, and how offsets must be treated from a tax perspective. There’s also greater pressure from investors, shareholders and securities regulators about disclosure regarding reporting issuers’ environmental footprint and regulatory risk.

Not that any of this is a huge surprise, mind you. The fact that lawyers are responding to the convergence of business and environmental considerations really only mirrors the growing consensus that sustainable development is becoming integral part of business strategy.

Stewart Brand, fervent environmentalist, outlines his view of the future in this 16 minute TED Talk. He advocates genetic engineering of crops and the installation of micro-nuclear reactors – both controversial, but potentially powerful solutions to our problems.

With genetic engineering, you require much less pesticides and herbicides and the soil can retain more of it’s nutrients. The impacts of these foods are not proven to be dangerous or safe, yet. But opposing them simply on the basis that they are different and “scary” seems unwise. See the talk for more details.

Micro-nuclear reactors are closed systems that contain the fissile material, reactor, cooling systems and other components. They are delivered by flat-bed trucks, you dig a hole, drop it in, and plug it into your grid. You’ve got power for a town for 50 years. Afterwards, the reactor is picked up and disposed of safely. Most of the fissile materials is reclaimed nuclear warheads, so you are actually burning waste. With the new US-Russia disarmament treaty signed last week, there will be even more material available to burn in these micro-reactors.

Though not your typical “green” solutions, these ideas are gaining more and more support in the scientific community as solutions to food, energy and climate issues. Promising stuff.

Not exactly hot of the press news anymore, but here‘s my rundown on the Supreme Court decision in St. Lawrence Cement Inc. v. Barrette.

This week, Wal-Mart had a “sustainability meeting” and announced new questionnaires to assess the environmental footprint of their suppliers. The data will eventually be converted into green labels for products that will indicate the environmental impact. Other retailers are likely to follow, in fact Wal-Mart has invited Costco, Target and Tesco to join on this initiative. Wal-Mart, once the pariah of social and environmental activists is now leading the charge.

Here is a good New York Times overview of the meeting.

Here are a couple of the questions suppliers will be encouraged to answer.

5. If measured, please report total amount of solid waste generated from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Wal-Mart Inc for the most recent year measured. (Enter total lbs)
6. Have you set publicly available solid waste reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets?(Enter total lbs and target date; 2 fields or leave blank)

The whole questionnaire is here.

On a similar note, there is an exellent podcast on the way Wal-Mart works here.